A Quick Question About Exploration

I started my first trip to the Core a few days ago with hopes of not only visiting Sag A and Colonia, but also gathering enough data to come back as Elite in the shortest amount of time possible. But before I'm out here for the next three weeks gathering more data then I'd need, I have a couple questions for the more seasoned explorers. Is your rank based on how many credits of data you turn in? If so, how many more credits would I need to turn in to get from 6% Pathfinder to Elite? And if I just scanned Neutron Stars and Black Holes, approximately how many would I need to scan?
 
And if I just scanned Neutron Stars and Black Holes, approximately how many would I need to scan?

If you want the little icon and email from the Pilot's Fed, you'll be better served setting your filter to FGK and looking for Earth-likes, Water-worlds and terraformables.
 
Welcome!

Yes, selling exploration data for credits does increase your rank. So does doing passenger missions, or driving around your SRV, but scan payouts do it by far the fastest.
As for going from Pathfinder to Elite... I'd give a rough estimate of 300 million credits of data. The steps between each rank inflate steeply.

I would recommend against neutron star farming now. You should be able to get credits much quicker with the new payouts if you go after water worlds and Earth-like worlds: with the first discovery bonus, terraforming candidates (and of course Earth-likes) should go for around one million per body. Whereas with neutron stars and black holes, you'd only get around 90,000 credits per undiscovered body - and from my experience, staring at those will rapidly become mind-numbingly boring.

So, I'd recommend scanning those blue marbles instead. I've written a guide which you can find here (or in my sig) that might be able to help you.

Good luck out there!
 
Welcome!

Yes, selling exploration data for credits does increase your rank. So does doing passenger missions, or driving around your SRV, but scan payouts do it by far the fastest.
As for going from Pathfinder to Elite... I'd give a rough estimate of 300 million credits of data. The steps between each rank inflate steeply.

I would recommend against neutron star farming now. You should be able to get credits much quicker with the new payouts if you go after water worlds and Earth-like worlds: with the first discovery bonus, terraforming candidates (and of course Earth-likes) should go for around one million per body. Whereas with neutron stars and black holes, you'd only get around 90,000 credits per undiscovered body - and from my experience, staring at those will rapidly become mind-numbingly boring.

So, I'd recommend scanning those blue marbles instead. I've written a guide which you can find here (or in my sig) that might be able to help you.

Good luck out there!

Thanks for the advice. I had no idea Earth-Likes, terraformables and water worlds were worth so much. I'll make sure to get my name on some of those worlds.

Once again, thanks for the advice! :)
 
Oh, in that case, you can also find a handy reference sheet with the prices here, made by CMDR Jantah. Those are without the +50% first discovery bonus, mind.
 
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I started my first trip to the Core a few days ago with hopes of not only visiting Sag A and Colonia, but also gathering enough data to come back as Elite in the shortest amount of time possible. But before I'm out here for the next three weeks gathering more data then I'd need, I have a couple questions for the more seasoned explorers. Is your rank based on how many credits of data you turn in? If so, how many more credits would I need to turn in to get from 6% Pathfinder to Elite? And if I just scanned Neutron Stars and Black Holes, approximately how many would I need to scan?

Each rank doubles up in terms of resources required from the last one.
 
To answer your original question, you would need roughly 1.5 million of credits per 1% to get you from Pioneer to Elite. So that would mean you would need roughly a hundred and fifty million to reach Elite from where you are now.

-Cmdr Parabolus
 
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The price boost to terraformable HMCs introduced in 2.3 really made space exploration a lot more profitable. The patch was pushed out about halfway through my last 2 month trip and the second half of that journey was nearly twice as profitable as the first.

Here are two more resources that will improve the efficiency of your trip -- rough charts of the habitable zones of different stars:

https://m.imgur.com/a/lM6PU

And a System Map soundboard:

http://www.objectscanner.net

These should take some of the guesswork out of picking profitable planets to scan.
 
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